“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” – The Gospel of Mark
Joe Biden, perhaps the swampiest political creature ever to occupy the White House, made a Faustian bargain with the Democrats to become their presidential candidate: If elected, Biden would play the role of the president, but others in the administration, possibly people like Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Susan Rice, would actually create the policies that would determine the future of America.
The real problem with this arrangement, aside from the obvious fact that we do not know who is really running the country, is that the Democrats’ cost of purchasing Biden is being paid for by the American people.
The two parties in the original transaction — the Democrats and Joe Biden — seem to be enjoying the benefits of their agreement. The Democratic Party, with complete control of Congress and the White House, may not be able to implement its leftist policies through legislation, but it is having a field day doing so through the creation of government agency regulations and executive orders.
Meanwhile, Biden gets to play the role he has dreamed of playing his entire life — that of President of the United States. Like a little child impersonating a superhero on Halloween, Biden pretends to be the leader of the free world. He obviously delights in the trappings of this job: He gets to ride on Air Force One; he gets to listen to “Hail to the Chief” whenever he makes an official appearance; as Commander-in-Chief, he gets to return the salute of every military figure who salutes him; and he even gets to enjoy quality time with the giant Easter Bunny at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
And what do the American people get? On the domestic front, they get the highest inflation in forty years and the prospect that inflation will go even higher, they get a surprise each week at the grocery store when they discover how much their food bill has increased from the week before, and they get to fill up their vehicles with fuel that currently costs almost five or six dollars a gallon and will probably continue to rise. Americans with babies get to go on a wild goose chase to find formula to feed their children.
On the international front, Americans get to see our credibility as a super power seriously damaged because of our feckless leader’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has alienated our allies and emboldened our adversaries. We get to watch our country become the laughing stock of the world as the Biden administration embarrasses itself by rejoining the Iran nuclear deal in the naïve hope that a country filled with people chanting “Death to America” will act in good faith when we negotiate with them. We have had the humiliating experience of watching the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates refuse to talk to Biden when he calls to ask them about purchasing oil because they are angry about his decision to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal.
Perhaps the highest price of all has been paid by the families of the thirteen military members who were killed when we withdrew from Afghanistan. When Biden met with these families at Dover Air Force Base as their loved ones were brought home, he kept looking at his watch as if he had somewhere more important to be. For a man who was supposed to be playing the role of Comforter-in-Chief that day, his performance was not very convincing.
After all, when you put yourself on the auction block to be bought by others, as Biden has done his entire life, you should give people their money’s worth after they buy you. You should especially do it for those who unwittingly pay the ultimate price, such as the men and women who have given their lives in the service of this country and their loved ones.
Mary Zahran lives in Fayetteville.
